Common Ground Song 90 ‘Now the silence’
Words:Jaroslav Vajda / Music: Carl Schalk © Hope Publishing Co.
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sPp4AH3Pc0
Featured image: AI Image Generator

This is not a hymn or song in the usual sense. It is closer to a ‘mass setting’, in the sense that it comprises a series of short chants to be used at different points in the communion service, though not using the traditional Catholic liturgy. It comes from the American Episcopal church.

The lyrics appear in the video linked above. The emphasis is on being in the present moment throughout the service, as each phrase begins with ‘now’.  Receiving welcome and forgiveness now. Understanding God’s word now. Receiving Christ in the bread and wine now. Being blessed for service now.

Yesterday, I attended a Lent quiet day in Leeds Minster. The speaker, Revd Janet Williams, spoke about different kinds of time. The ordinary passage of time that we all experience (Greek chronos), the special moments when it seems the appropriate time for a particular event to take place (Kairos), the timelessness of God that we call eternity, and way in which what seem to us different points in time can be intimately connected. She illustrated this with a simple cloth: the warp of the cloth representing linear time, the tiny holes between warp and weft as the Kairos moments, the whole sheet of cloth as eternity, and when folded over, two points touching. I found that very helpful. What this song seems to be saying is that in worship generally, and at communion especially, all those kinds of time come together in one moment. God’s eternity, our own experience of past events and future potential, and the present moment. We gather in, unite with others, are fed with eternal life, and go out again to resume our daily lives.

The final lines of the song are: ‘Now the Spirit’s visitation, now the Son’s epiphany, now the father’s blessing. Now, now, now.’